It is official! The vast majority of Senate Republicans may be enemies of the people. Their photos could be posted on post office bulletins boards. Their faces could well be featured in the dossiers of FBI agents as friends of enemy combatants.
In the beginning — as you know — God created the heavens and the earth. On the Sixth Day, after creating cattle, creeping things, and the first two people (Genesis 1:26-28), sleepless, fidgeting, and for no particular reason, He created what we call “the Two Party System.”
(In God-language: מערכתדו-מפלגתית.)
Now, why the Two Party System? you ask. As opposed to something else?
The 2016 presidential election presents the American working class with a historic moment. No, I am not talking about the possibility of the first rich, neoliberal woman president. Nor am I talking about the social democrat masquerading as a socialist. Nor am I talking about the arrogant, racist, borderline fascist Donald Trump.
As the wizard Gandalf declared during the darkest hour: “There never was much hope… Just a fool’s hope.”
The narrow thread of hope now rests on the Justice Department investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal concealment of her emails from the State Department she headed from 2009 to 2012. If she’s hit by a true scandal between now and the Philadelphia convention in July, all bets could be off.
As suggested by Jane Mayer in Dark Money, never have two members of one American family spent so much time and money to control our democracy, and in their effort, foster economic damage for most Americans. The guilty parties: Charles and David Koch. It is also likely that self-delusion and insularity from the less-fortunate have rendered both impervious to any recognition that their course is detrimental to the well-being of a great majority of Americans.
The corrupt, interminable 2016 presidential primary process has revealed terrible flaws in United States democracy. The biggest takeaway is that our two-party monopoly system is outmoded and inadequate to represent our diverse U.S. population. We need a fresh start, with more — and more open — parties, more closely resembling other western democracies. Too many Americans are now excluded for various reasons, with no say in their own governance.
The dynamics of capitalism is postponement of enjoyment to the constantly postponed future.
— Norman O. Brown, Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History, 1959
Right-wingers have adopted the outrage-machine over the last several decades, with the unceasing intention of dominating the media and influencing public opinion with a right-wing bias. The highly-funded choral and print network they have built is impressive and relentless at the same time. Almost all are petty, embellished or fabricated, but many imagined.
The really outrageous – most causing or involving death or injury — seem to be presented perfunctorily, fitted with “corporate lenses,” or consigned to more obscure treatment, even by mainstream media. Here is a small sample:
Damned by a corrupt system, it appears voters will be given a choice between Hillary Clinton and her friend Donald Trump this year, with no realistic alternative allowed by corporate media and their establishment patrons.
I say “friend” because the Clintons and Trumps have a relationship going back for years.
Seeing Trump as their enemy, many liberals are opining that Hillary is the lesser evil, saying they will vote for her.
